It was a week of mixed results for many teams, as several squads posted an impressive victory and also suffered a disappointing defeat. One exception to that was No. 13 California, which headed North and posted a pair of wins in Washington. On Friday, the Bears beat 24th-ranked Washington State for the 14th consecutive time by scores of 25-16, 25-23, 23-25, 25-16 in front of 2,134 fans. Senior outside hitter Hana Cutura led the way with 19 kills and 10 digs, while junior Carli Lloyd set the Golden Bears to a .336 hitting mark and also added nine kills (on 12 errorless attempts) and eight digs. A night later, Cutura posted 33 kills on. 299 hitting to lead Cal to a five-set (23-25, 25-18, 14-25, 25-23, 15-13) upset of No. 4 Washington in front of a crowd of 2,602 that hadn't seen the Huskies lose at home previously this season. Cutura - who also had eight digs and four blocks - also became Cal's all-time leader in kills, now with 1,825. The Bears have now won six of their last seven, with four of those wins coming against ranked teams. Junior outside hitter Kindra Carlson led the Huskies with 26 kills and 12 digs.

Washington posted a big victory of its own on Friday, taking the battle of the conference's top two teams in three sets, 25-21, 25-23, 25-19 against fifth-ranked Stanford in front of 4,557 fans. The Cardinal, three-time defending Pac-10 champs, had dealt UW its first defeat of the season in a five-set decision last month. Stanford junior libero Gabi Ailes recorded 29 digs in the three-set affair. The Cardinal - which had lost back-to-back matches for the first time since 2005 - rebounded on Saturday with a sweep (25-17, 25-20, 25-22) of Washington State that saw junior outside hitter Alix Klineman pound 18 kills. Ailes notched 25 more digs - giving her 54 in six sets over the weekend for a stratospheric average of 9.00 per set.

The most noteworthy result of the week probably occurred on Wednesday in Ames, Iowa, where No. 8 Iowa State handed second-ranked Texas its first defeat of the season in a five-set decision (22-25, 25-22, 25-15, 20-25, 15-12). Rachel Hockaday (25 digs), Ashley Mass (23 digs) and Debbie Stadick (six blocks) paced the ISU defensive effort that held the Longhorns - which ranked second in Division I in attack percentage - to a season-low .189 mark. Senior outside hitter Destinee Hooker led all players with 27 kills and added 12 digs and two aces for UT, which had won nine in a row against the Cyclones. Iowa State then had its 11-match winning streak ended on Saturday when 10th-ranked Nebraska - which lost to the Cyclones for the first time in 76 all-time meetings last month - posted a three-set win (25-16, 25-22, 25-23) in front of a record crowd of 10,203 fans cramming Hilton Coliseum. Sydney Anderson orchestrated an extremely balanced attack (three players had nine kills and two more posted eight) that finished with a .327 attack percentage against the Big 12's top defensive team.  

Two teams - 18th-ranked Arizona and No. 20 Baylor - prevailed in a matchup of ranked squads and also suffered an upset against an unranked team last week. Paige Weber led the Wildcats to a .317 hitting mark in a 25-20, 25-21, 23-25, 25-17 victory at 14th-ranked Oregon on Friday night. But Oregon State then snapped its six-match losing streak on Saturday with a four-set (30-28, 23-25, 25-16, 25-22) upset of Arizona. Senior outside hitter Rachel Rourke led the Beavers with 31 kills on .373 hitting and 12 digs.

  Baylor got swept at home on Wednesday by Oklahoma by scores of 25-22, 25-20, 25-20. Sophomore Brianne Barker set the Sooners to a .311 hitting mark, while junior middle blocker Francie Ekwerekwu had 18 kills on just 26 attempts for a .654 mark. But the Bears would bounce back on Saturday to notch their first win against a ranked team on the road in more than 10 years - an 18-25, 25-13, 25-27, 25-23, 18-16 triumph over 23rd-ranked Texas A&M. An 18-6 blocking advantage propelled Baylor to victory despite 26 kills and 16 digs from TAMU senior outside hitter Sarah Ammerman. The Aggies also were upset on Wednesday, as Kansas State notched a 25-20, 25-27, 25-22, 21-25, 16-14 home victory that saw junior libero Lauren Mathewson record a school-record 41 digs.

No. 7 UCLA remained hot and battled to a five-set (25-17, 14-25, 25-16, 17-25, 15-12) victory over its biggest rival, 17th-ranked USC, on the road in front of 4,619 fans. Sophomore middle blocker Amanda Gil led the Bruins with 16 kills on .560 hitting and seven blocks. UCLA - winner of six straight - is now just 0.5 games behind Washington for the Pac-10 lead. 

The marquee matchup in the Big Ten went to fifth-ranked Illinois - which won 25-27, 25-22, 25-21, 25-17 over No. 15 Michigan on Friday. The Illini got 21 kills from junior outside hitter Laura DeBruler and 12 blocks from junior middle blocker Johannah Bangert. Illinois will take a 12-match winning streak into Friday's showdown at No. 1 Penn State, winners of 90 in a row.

San Francisco earned a three-set (25-15, 25-23, 25-23) upset of No. 22 San Diego on Saturday, as senior libero Haley Carroll had 16 digs and became the first West Coast Conference player ever to record 2,000 in her career. Junior Sarah Mandala had 15 kills for USF.

Cassie Robbins and Washington State took part in the Attacking Breat Cancer Pink Campaign and knocked off Washington

The biggest upset of the weekend came on Friday in Pullman, as Washington State - the first team outside of the Top 25 - snapped a 12-match losing streak against its biggest rival and registered an 18-25, 25-22, 25-21, 25-22 victory over No. 4 Washington in front of 2,724 fans. Meagan Ganzer led the Cougars with 15 kills, while three players in the match - UW's Tamari Miyashiro (28) and the WSU pair of Oceana Bush (23) and Jackie Albright (22) - had 20+ digs.

The showdown in the SEC didn't disappoint, as seventh-ranked Kentucky eventually prevailed in five (25-23, 19-25, 16-25, 25-15) over No. 20 LSU on Saturday. Sarah Mendoza paced UK with 21 kills and 12 digs, while LSU had 17 blocks in the losing effort - with Lauren DeGirolamo and Brittnee Cooper taking part in nine each.

Two of the elite teams in the Big Ten also matched up on Saturday, and No. 9 Minnesota pulled out a four-set (20-25, 25-19, 25-22, 25-10) win over 11th-ranked Michigan in front of a crowd of 7,547. Taylor Carico set the Gophers to a .298 hitting mark, with Tabitha Love leading the attack with 29 kills on .455 hitting. Minnesota had a big advantage at the net, outblocking the Wolverines 15-5 - which was a big part of U-M hitting just .148.

No. 12 Oregon headed to Los Angeles for the weekend and could not come away with a victory. On Friday, it was 13th-ranked UCLA earning a 26-24, 25-18, 22-25, 22-25, 15-9 triumph over the Ducks. Amanda Gil had 14 kills on .345 hitting and also was in on 10 of the Bruins' 18.5 blocks. Sonja Newcombe had 22 kills and 23 digs for UO in the losing effort. Newcombe had 21 kills and 10 digs in just three sets the following afternoon, but the Ducks were edged in each of those frames in a 26-24, 25-23, 30-28 defeat at the hands of No. 18 USC. Alex Jupiter led the Women of Troy with 19 kills, while Alli Hillgren had 20 digs.

No. 16 Arizona suffered a similar fate to Oregon - as the Wildcats returned home with a pair of losses against two of the best teams in the Pac-10. The Wildcats lost in four (25-19, 21-25, 25-16, 25-16) against California on Friday. That match featured one of the top individual performances of the weekend, as Cal's Hana Cutura posted 31 kills on just 47 swings for a .638 hitting mark - and also added 11 digs. Junior setter Carli Lloyd helped the Bears to a .331 attack percentage as a team. On Sunday, sixth-ranked Stanford swept Arizona 25-22, 25-21, 25-23 in front of 2,131 fans. The Cardinal had six service aces in the match and got 11 kills on .429 hitting from Janet Okogbaa. - while Arizona's Whitney Dosty led all players with 15 kills.

There were two other instances of unranked teams pulling off upsets. The first came on Thursday, as TCU cooled off the newest member of the Top 25 with a 25-23, 25-22, 25-10 win against 25th-ranked Colorado State in front of a record crowd of 1,875 in Fort Worth. TCU got 11 kills from Christy Hudson, and Megan Munce had three of the Horned Frogs' seven aces, as TCU held the Rams to a .097 hitting mark and snapped CSU's 12-match winning streak.

On Friday, UC Santa Barbara upset 19th-ranked UC Irvine in a five-set decision (14-25, 25-22, 17-25, 25-22, 19-17) on the road. The Gauchos got 28 kills and 13 digs from Rebecca Saraceno, as well as 26 digs from Chelsey Lowe on the way to improving to 4-1 against ranked teams this season - and sweeping the season series with the Anteaters. UCI held statistical advantages in just about every category - including kills, hitting percentage, aces, digs and blocks - but came up short in the end despite 22 kills from Kari Pestolesi.

Both undefeated teams remained that way without much difficulty. Top-ranked Penn State beat Indiana 25-19, 25-13, 25-17 on Friday and dominated Purdue 25-13, 25-15, 25-12 the following day. Megan Hodge had 16 kills on .538 hitting against the Hoosiers, while Alisha Glass set the Lions to a .362 team mark against IU and a .438 percentage vs. the Boilermakers. No. 2 Texas beat Colorado 25-23, 25-12, 25-15 on Saturday. Michelle Kocher set the Longhorns to a .443 hitting percentage, and Destinee Hooker had six service aces for UT.